'TBH Politoons'
Jazz From Hills
Trimmed Bush and Hedges
Reader Suggestion
Veterans' Day Film Festival
(from Tuesday, 11/09/04)
Marty -
How about a Veterans' Day Film Festival?
For those of you who don't know, Veterans' Day is traditionally remembered on the anniversary of the Armistice of WWI, which happened on November 11. We mostly forget about WWI now because it was nasty, long and costly. Also because it never lived up to its promise of being the "War to end all Wars," or the struggle to bring democracy to the world.
WWII was a much better subject for film, and we will, no doubt, see no end of tributes to the Greatest Generation this week on TCM, AMC and the History Channel. It's tough to argue that fighting Hitler wasn't good and necessary, even if we had a choice in the matter--people frequently forget that Hitler actually declared war on us, not the other way around.
But as our troops--beloved Sons, Brothers, Fathers, Daughters, Sisters and, yes, even Mothers--grind through Fallujah in hopes of bringing democracy and 'freedom' to the ignorant, I want to bring some of the great anti-war veterans' films into the spotlight, with Ralph's Veterans' Day Film Festival.
We start out with Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak's grand tale of love triumphing over war. Zhivago (Omar Sharif) is drafted into the Russian Army to serve in WWI, where he falls in love with a nurse. Their love is not meant to be, however, as he returns to revolutionary Russia, only to be drafted again to serve with a Red unit. His foils, his brother Yevgraf (played by the incredible Alec Guiness) and the brutal Strelnikov, reject Zhivago's dismissal of politics and war, embracing the brutality of their time. Yevgraf, however, gets it in the end, when he tries to help Zhivago's daughter.
Reader Contribution
Veterans' Day Film Festival
One of your readers offer a Veteran's Day special of movies. While the movies
he put forth were good, he left off the best war film ever.
Sergeant York gives us a true hero of America. One who didn't need props to show off.
Based on the story of Alvin York, the movie actually sticks fairly close to
the real live events. Made during the run up to WW II the movie manages to
be patriotic without laying it on too thick.
Gary Cooper's portrayal of the young
man from Tennesse who was a hellion and then became so strict a conscientious
objector that he tried to get out of even training duty because he was
training men to kill is brilliantly understated (and Cooper knew how to
understate). The combat footage, while not gruesome, is rough enough for its
day. The back up cast is excellent. Even when he is offered the world he
rejects it for a farm with his wife. This film should be standard viewing
for Veterans Day as a tribute to all those who came home, put down the sword
and picked up the plow.
As a close second I would also recommend the ultimate war hero Patton. George C Scott's portrayal of the man who loved war is worthy of the Oscar he
won.
Mr. Hawk
From this day forward, when they sling mud I throw bricks back at them!
Thanks, Mr. Hawk!
My Choices
Veterans' Day Film Festival
Any time my dad saw Sergeant York (1941) listed on TV, we had to watch it. Can also say that thanks to dear old dad I saw every Audie Murphy movie ever made.
But this year, my movies skew anti-war, in memory of an old pal who came back from Viet Nam haunted and flinchy.
He was an enlistee, ended up on a swift boat. Had 2 of them blown out from under him, and he was wounded both times. Got sent back both times, too.
When he finally came home he tried to resume his life, but, sometimes he'd burst into tears, which isn't good for a man in the backwoods. Often neighbors heard him scream with nightmares. Sudden moves startled him & he jumped easily at unexpected sounds.
He committed suicide by hanging in 1981.
So, was reading my hometown paper today and saw his mom's obit. In keeping with the conservative christian values so deeply ingrained in that region, his name was omitted.
These movies are in memory of 'Elmer'.
Coming Home (1978), directed by Hal Ashby
Born on the Fourth of July (1989), directed by Oliver Stone
MASH (1970), directed by Robert Altman
Grand Illusion (1937) [AKA: 'La Grande illusion'], directed by Jean Renoir
King of Hearts (1966) [AKA: 'Le Roi de coeur], directed by Philippe de Broca
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), directed by Stanley Kubrick
Recommended Reading
Too Little, Too Late, By Robert Parry
An Excerpt:
George W. Bush's electoral victory is chilling proof that conservatives have achieved dominance over the flow of information to the American people and that even a well-run Democratic campaign stands virtually no chance for national success without major changes in how the news media operates.
Things Not To Say When Watching
"Passion of Christ"
"Why is he white?"
"Holy sh*t!!"
"I thought Lennon was shot"
"Drop that thing and RUN Jesus!"
"I thought Mary was his mother not his wife"
"Jesus f______ CHRIST!!!!!"
"They stole this whipping thing from 'Roots' "
"He's a hippie!!!"
"When is the part where he wears the flightsuit?"
"This reminds me of 'Kill Bill'"
"pssssst how do you think he is going to get out of THIS spot?"
"So THIS is why we get Good Friday off"
"Gosh, Mel Gibson really nailed this story."
Thanks, Alex!
Purple Gene Reviews
'Casablanca'
Purple Genes' review of the 1942 classic movie "Casablanca":
I will take my 5 favorite Movies to my desert island when I leave this Tormented Continent.......This Confused Country.....This Rediculous Republican "Regime"......No Foreign Films - no Documentaries...Just the Best Hollywood Classics........."King Kong" (1933), "Citizen Kane" (1941), "Lost Horizon" (1937), "Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House" (1948) and my favorite all time hollywood movie and I think the BEST MOVIE EVER MADE - "Casablanca".......Here's why.........
Un-requited Love, Courage, Loyalty, A great Theme song, Fascists singing, A cool Bar in Casablanca, a War Raging and......Rick and Ilsa......"Casablanca" (1942) directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart (thank god Ronald Reagan didn't get this role!), Ingrid Bergman (thank god Ann Sheridan didn't get this role!), Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Dooley Wilson, Joy Page and many more.......came together to create the most Romantic and memorable Hollywood ensemble EVER........No Sex ....No Violence....just a great screenplay set in a Bar in Casablanca called "Ricks Cafe Americain"!
Here's the plot.......Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is an exiled American who runs a popular bar in Casablanca during World War II. Rick has that cynical hard edge (something happened in his past) with an air of Honor and compassion. He gets a hold of two very valuable "Letters of Transit" - basically free passes to America. Then the Nazis arrive in the club and start pissing everybody off and singing Nationalistic Songs.
Enter Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) a Czech freedom fighter with Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) on his arm.....It just so happens that Ilsa is the something that happened in the past....she and Rick had an affair in Paris......but Ilsa left him mysteriously - "We'll always have Paris".....Well Rick was still upset for beingstood up..and then the plot thickens....Ilsa needs the Letters of Transit to get Victor away from the Nazis........and so she has to talk to Rick privately......bring in Dooley Wilson on the piano singing "As Time Goes By"
It's getting warm in Ricks Cafe and the over head fans keep turning....
Then Ilsa drops the bomb on Rick....when they had their affair in Paris, she was still married to Victor - she thought he'd been killed by the Nazis.......Rick starts doing some quick calculations...."Of all the Gin joints in all the towns in all the world...she walks into mine!".....and she wants those Exit Visas!
This is such a great movie in terms of pace......everything is coming to a head and Rick has to decide if he is going to be an unhappy hero and help Ilsa and her husband avoid the Gestapo........as the drama increases so does the level of the script..... and Rick says to Ilsa...."I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, Someday you'll understand that! Now, here's looking at you Kid!"......God what a guy!!!
The race to the airport.......Captain Renault (Claude Rains) the Chief of Police, to help stall for time orders his minions to "Round up the usual Suspects" getting Ilsa and Victor on that plane to freedom....as the Nazis are unable to stop them....Captain Renault obviously admires Ricks Heroic act and tells him...Oddly, Rick says to Renault as they walk into the night "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"!!!
"The fundamental things are true...as time goes by"!!!!!
Purple Gene gives Casablanca 2 thumbs way up and 100% as my favorite movie of all time!
Purple Gene
thanks, Purple Gene!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny but cool.
The kid has a 4-day weekend. His teachers are having in-service days.
Cancel 'Saving Private Ryan'
ABC Affiliates
Several ABC affiliates have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission.
Stations replacing the movie with other programming Thursday include Cox Television-owned stations in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., three Midwest stations owned by Citadel Communications.
In a statement on the Web site of Atlanta's WSB-TV, the station's vice president and general manager, Greg Stone cited a March ruling in which the FCC said an expletive uttered by rock star Bono during NBC's live airing of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards was both indecent and profane.
The agency made it clear then that virtually any use of the F-word - which is used in "Saving Private Ryan" - was inappropriate for over-the-air radio and television.
The Bono case "reversed years of prior policy that the context of language matters," Stone said. He added that broadcaster could not get any clarification from the FCC on whether the movie violates the standard.
Other stations that decided not to air the movie include WGNO-TV of New Orleans, owned by Tribune Broadcasting Corp., and WMUR-TV of Manchester, N.H., owned by Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.
ABC, which broadcast the film uncut in 2001 and 2002, issued a statement saying it is proud to broadcast it again. The network's contract with director Steven Spielberg stipulates that the film cannot be edited.
ABC affiliates
Cell Phone Version
'24'
Fox Entertainment Group Inc. will bring a spinoff of its hit television series "24" to cell phones next year in a tie-up with mobile phone carrier Vodafone Group Plc, Fox said on Wednesday.
Vodafone will distribute "24: Conspiracy," a series of 24 minute-long episodes, in up to 23 countries, beginning Jan. 30 in Britain on Vodafone's new 3G advanced wireless network.
Fox said plans were under way to distribute "24: Conspiracy" in the United States through Verizon Wireless next year.
'24'
Looks at Price of War and Freedom
New Exhibit
Badly wounded in Iraq, Army Spec. Rosetta Floyd joined other U.S. veterans at a dedication ceremony on Wednesday for a new Smithsonian exhibition tracking 250 years of American military conflicts.
Called "The Price of Freedom, Americans at War," the exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History displays more than 850 artifacts from the Revolutionary War to the present conflict in Iraq and looks at how those wars defined America's history.
Among artifacts on display in the exhibit are furniture used by Civil War generals Grant and Lee, the sword and scabbard George Washington wore; a Huey 091 helicopter flown in Vietnam and steel girders from the World Trade Center, which was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
New Exhibit
Awarded Peace Prize in Rome
Yusuf Islam
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev honored the singer once known as Cat Stevens with a peace prize on Wednesday, praising him for charity work and for standing by his convictions despite personal hardships.
Yusuf Islam was awarded the "Man for Peace" prize in Rome at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates. He last made headlines in September, when he turned up on Washington's no-fly list for having suspected ties to terrorists - a claim he has strongly denied.
The "Peace Train" singer, who largely gave up music after converting to Islam in the late 1970s, mused about the strangeness of being barred from one country while being honored in another.
Islam criticized what he called an "unjust and arbitrary system," and that he has denounced terrorism. He also pointed out that just a few months earlier, he had met with officials of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to talk about philanthropy.
Yusuf Islam
Gives Alma Mater $5.3M
Johnny Carson
Former "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson gave $5.3 million Wednesday to the University of Nebraska Foundation.
The gift from Carson, an alumnus of the school, will support the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts' Department of Theatre Arts.
The money also will help renovate and expand the 100-year-old Temple Building. Plans call for a new black box theatre and film sound stage, among other things.
Carson received his bachelor of arts degree in radio and speech, with a minor in physics, in 1949.
Johnny Carson
Leaves Hospital
Patty Duke
Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke was released from the Kootenai Medical Center after undergoing single heart bypass surgery earlier this month.
Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson said Duke, 57, was released from the North Idaho Heart Center on Tuesday, six days after the Nov. 3 surgery.
Duke has lived in the Coeur d'Alene area since the early 1990s with her husband, Mike Pearce.
Patty Duke
Tour to Be Auctioned
Playboy Mansion
A tour of the Playboy Mansion, tickets to a Jimmy Buffett concert and a signed first edition of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" - complete with your own personal bullet hole - are among the prizes being auctioned on behalf of The Paris Review, the celebrated literary magazine.
The charity auction, which began Tuesday and ends Nov. 18, is titled, "The World of the Paris Review: The Greatest International Literary Magazine, Complete with Sports, Stars, Literary Supernovas, and of course the Irrepressible Spirit of Founder and Late Editor George Plimpton."
Seventy-two items are available for bidding, including a voucher to have Alec Baldwin record your voicemail message; passes to the premiere of Martin Scorsese's new film, "The Aviator"; drinks with Charlie Rose; and artwork by Christo, Keith Haring, Larry Rivers and James Rosenquist.
Playboy Mansion
A Duel With Maureen Dowd?
Zell Miller
Sen. Zell Miller, who famously challenged MSGOP host Chris 'Tweety' Matthews to a duel during the Republican convention this year, now may have to face New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.
Appearing on Don Imus' national radio program on Tuesday, Miller ripped the woman he called "Maureen Loud," calling her a "highbrow hussy from New York." He added that the "red-headed woman at the New York Times" should not mock anyone's religion: "You can see horns just sprouting up through that Technicolor hair."
Asked by the New York Post for a response, Dowd said: "I'm not a highbrow hussy from New York. I'm a highbrow hussy from Washington. Senator, pistols or swords?"
Zell Miller
Bodyguard Says...
Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli's bodyguard claims the Oscar-winning actress made him have sex with her in order to keep his job, according to recently unsealed court documents.
The allegations are detailed in M'Hammed Soumayah's $100 million lawsuit against the entertainer. Minnelli's lawyers did not return calls for comment Wednesday. But in a court document, one of her lawyers, Dorothy Weber, said Soumayah had "commenced this action in a quick sand of untruths and misstatements" and accused him of a "shakedown" of her client.
In the lawsuit, Soumayah, 56, accused Minnelli of assault and battery, breach of contract, withholding payment for services rendered and sexual harrassment.
Liza Minnelli
To Be Auctioned
007 Moon Buggy
James Bond's moon buggy from the movie "Diamonds Are Forever" is up for sale.
The moon buggy that Bond, played by Sean Connery, used to make a hasty getaway in the 1971 film, will be among a collection of movie and entertainment pieces offered at Christie's on Dec. 14, auctioneers said Wednesday.
Other items include Charlie Chaplin's mustache from the 1940 film "The Great Dictator," scripts from British radio's "Goon Show" and a storm-trooper helmet used in the 1980 sci-fi flick "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back."
007 Moon Buggy
Pleads Not Guilty in Assault Case
Courtney Love
Courtney Love pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon stemming from a confrontation with a woman at her ex-boyfriend's house.
Love, 40, entered her plea before Superior Court Judge Terry Green. She is scheduled to return to court for a Dec. 15 pretrial hearing, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. A trial likely would not start until next year, Robison said.
The felony charge is related to an April 25 incident at the home of Love's former boyfriend. Love allegedly found a 32-year-old woman sleeping on a sofa and threw a liquor bottle at her and chased her with a flashlight.
Courtney Love
New York Met Buys Rare Italian Masterpiece
Stroganoff Madonna
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art said on Wednesday it had bought a rare, and tiny, early Renaissance Italian masterpiece in what could be the most expensive purchase in the Met's history.
The Met said its purchase of the Stroganoff Madonna by 14th century Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna was "one of the great single acquisitions of the last half century."
The New York Times reported that the museum paid more than $45 million for the tempera and gold on wood Madonna and Child, which measures just 8 by 11 inches (20 by 28 cm).
Stroganoff Madonna
Compulsive Art Tinkerer
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas, whose paintings of ballerinas made him a household name after his death in 1917, was a perfectionist who continually tinkered with his works -- even after he had sold them.
Not only did he rework paintings in his studio, in some cases over several decades, he frequently pestered his friends to let him have back works he had sold them in order to add fresh touches.
Now Britain's National Gallery has mounted an exhibition to demonstrate the great French Impressionist's technique.
It has gathered some of Degas' most evocative works and hung them with studies he made for them and X-rays showing how he fretted with compositions.
Edgar Degas
New Species of Amphibian
'Striegeli'
A freshman geology student on a field trip stumbled across the fossil of an oversized, salamander-like creature with vicious crocodile-like teeth that lived about 300 million years ago, paleontologists said.
Scientists say the find is both a new species and a new genus, a broader category in the classification of plants and animals. Talks are under way about what to call the new species, starting with "Striegeli" - after the University of Pittsburgh student who discovered it.
Initially, Adam Striegel picked up the softball-sized rock along a fresh road cut near Pittsburgh International Airport, and thinking it was of little interest, threw it aside. Walking back through the same area, he retrieved the stone and showed it to class lecturer Charles Jones.
'Striegeli'
List of Winners
2004 CMA Awards
Winners at the 2004 CMA Awards held Tuesday night in Nashville:
_ Musician: Dann Huff, guitar
_ Music Video: "Whiskey Lullaby," Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss, directed by Rick Schroder
_ Song: "Live Like You Were Dying," Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman
_ Musical Event: Brad Paisley featuring Alison Krauss, "Whiskey Lullaby"
_ Single: "Live Like You Were Dying," Tim McGraw, produced by Byron Gallimore, Tim McGraw and Darran Smith
_ Vocal Duo: Brooks & Dunn
_ Album: "When the Sun Goes Down," Kenny Chesney, produced by Buddy Cannon and Kenny Chesney
_ Female Vocalist: Martina McBride
_ Male Vocalist: Keith Urban
_ Horizon Award: Gretchen Wilson
_ Vocal Group: Rascal Flatts
_ Entertainer: Kenny Chesney
2004 CMA Awards
